1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording system generating the image data of a manuscript image from digital manuscript data in order to record the manuscript image on an image recording medium, an information reproducing system reproducing image data from an image recording medium, and an information recording and reproducing system including these information recording system and information reproducing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although digital data has many advantages, such as being processable by a computer or the like, digital data is also disadvantageous in that digital media have a relatively short life, a greater dependence on specific hardware and software (including the need for proprietary hardware or software for viewing the information expressed by the data, and the short product lives of the hardware and the software), the possibility of the breakage of the data in its entirety caused by damage at a portion, relative ease of alteration of the data, and the like. On the other hand, although analog data such as a microfilm and the like is disadvantageous in that it cannot be readily processed by a computer, analog data also has many advantages, including a long shelf life, independence from hardware and software, difficulty of alteration and legal admissibility as evidence, and the like. Accordingly, there has been an ongoing effort towards the hybridization of analog and digital techniques.
A computer output microfilm (COM) analog-digital hybrid system for recording digital data directly on a microfilm has been known.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional COM system. In FIG. 6, a manuscript data processing apparatus 10′ is composed of a computer. The manuscript data processing apparatus 10′ generates the image data of a manuscript image indicating the contents of the manuscript data from input digital data (manuscript data), which is a long-term storage object, and transfers the generated image data to a film writer 20′. The film writer 20′ prints a manuscript image on a microfilm (hereinafter suitably referred to as an “MF”) based on the received image data. In the COM system, digital manuscript data is thus recorded on a microfilm. In addition, the manuscript image recorded on the microfilm is optically read using, for example, a film scanner 30′, and image data is reproduced from the microfilm.
In such a system, there are no methods of objectively evaluating the reproducibility of reproduction data, that is, there are no mean for objectively confirming the identity of the data saved on the microfilm and the data reproduced from the microfilm, in the event that the manuscript data was lost. Consequently, whether or not reproduced image data can have the property as the script of a microfilm greatly depend on occasional practical standards, operator competence, and the like.